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A review by hyouri
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
2.0
2.5 ?
I have mixed feeling about this book, so I will break this review into two parts.
The good:
First and foremost this is the most beautiful book I own. I absolutely love the cover art.
The writing and imagery is so eloquent and beautiful. It is so easy to close your eyes and imagine all the clothing, the world, the smells, literally everything she describes. Her writing is almost lyrical and reads as a folklore being told around a fire. The world was interesting, and felt like it was vast with possibilities. This being said I feel like it actually made me find the book lacking in other aspects because of these things.
The bad
About halfway through the book I began to lose my patience with the relationships. Every single character had some sort of toxic and unhappy relationship. Xingyin's indecisiveness and hypocrisy began to drive me insane. I could relate to this at the beginning when she was younger and less aware of the world, but after being in the kingdom for years and a soldier, there just really wasn't an excuse. All of the characters would say one thing and then two chapters later immediately go back on their word. The romance overshadowed the world and the fantasy, which is fine, if that romance was actually well done. The relationships between characters just felt so shallow and off base for it being the main focus of the book. I'm not sure if this was just the fmc inner turmoil and confusion with her own emotions, but it really just made the romance fall flat. She only loved these men when it was convenient for her, when they had something to offer her, or she had something to gain from their love. She was able to lie and use them, but when they gave her half answers and kept secrets it was unforgivable and cruel. Everything she was and did was only able to be achieved from the help and support of both of these men.
I just expected more depth.
I have mixed feeling about this book, so I will break this review into two parts.
The good:
First and foremost this is the most beautiful book I own. I absolutely love the cover art.
The writing and imagery is so eloquent and beautiful. It is so easy to close your eyes and imagine all the clothing, the world, the smells, literally everything she describes. Her writing is almost lyrical and reads as a folklore being told around a fire. The world was interesting, and felt like it was vast with possibilities. This being said I feel like it actually made me find the book lacking in other aspects because of these things.
The bad
About halfway through the book I began to lose my patience with the relationships. Every single character had some sort of toxic and unhappy relationship. Xingyin's indecisiveness and hypocrisy began to drive me insane. I could relate to this at the beginning when she was younger and less aware of the world, but after being in the kingdom for years and a soldier, there just really wasn't an excuse. All of the characters would say one thing and then two chapters later immediately go back on their word. The romance overshadowed the world and the fantasy, which is fine, if that romance was actually well done. The relationships between characters just felt so shallow and off base for it being the main focus of the book. I'm not sure if this was just the fmc inner turmoil and confusion with her own emotions, but it really just made the romance fall flat. She only loved these men when it was convenient for her, when they had something to offer her, or she had something to gain from their love. She was able to lie and use them, but when they gave her half answers and kept secrets it was unforgivable and cruel. Everything she was and did was only able to be achieved from the help and support of both of these men.
I just expected more depth.